weekly_food_challenge | Entries tagged with sweet things

Mood: hungry

So glad I've been able to join in with the challenge this week - I kept planning to every time a new challenge was posted, but things have been busy and I've not got round to it. But, yes, it's December, the theme is PIES, so obviously I made mince pies.

I've been making these every year for about 8 or 9 years. I make both the mince meat and the pastry myself and both recipes are pretty simple. Boozy mincemeat recipe is here, and unbelievably easy mince pies (pastry) recipe is here. I can recommend being liberal with the booze in the mincemeat recipe. For the pastry recipe, I pretty much make it as per the recipe - lots of people in the comments seem to add some water/an egg/some milk to the pastry so they can roll it out. Yes, it is a little bit faffy to press the pastry into the tins, but I would venture no more faffy than rolling out and cutting pastry, then lining each hole of the tin. Plus it is worth it for very buttery, short pastry. The thing that I do slightly differently is that I use a muffin tin and make 12 large deep-filled mince pies, rather than 18 smaller ones. I also don't weigh out the mincemeat, I just fill each pie up with as much filling as possible.

Icing sugar is also optional. I've found that friends and family actually like the 'rustic' look of these mince pies. They're not going to win any awards for presentation, but they taste damn good.

el_staplador

I don't know why I suggested this challenge. (Twice, apparently.) I grow very little. But I do have a herb planter. The apples were also home-grown, but by my in-laws.

Ingredients
4oz plain flour
2oz butter or equivalent
1oz granulated sugar (I didn't have any, so used caster, but granulated is much crunchier and nicer)
about 3 apples (I started out with five, chucked one in its entirety, and cut off bits of two others)
4 sprigs lemon thyme
a little more sugar
water

Equipment
oven
mixing bowl
spoon
ovenproof dish
sharp knife
peeler (or do it with a knife, if you're brave)

Method

Preheat oven to about 190degC.

To make the crumble topping, rub the fat into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Peel and core the apples. Remove any manky bits too. Slice what's left and put it in the dish along with the lemon thyme. (You can either strip the leaves from the stem and mix them in with the apples, or leave them intact and remove the whole lot after cooking.) Stir in about a tablespoon of sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water. Make sure the apples are distributed evenly across the dish and then spoon the crumble over the top, covering all the apple.

Bake for half an hour or until the topping has become pale golden.

miss_s_b

What do you want when it's hot? Something cold, yummy, that isn't too much of a faff to cook, and won't leave you feeling all bloated and eurgh. This is just the ticket, based on a Diana Henry recipe.

You will need:

Two smallish saucepans, and a hob to heat them on.
A blender that can cope with warm things.
A sieve and a wooden spoon.
An ice cream machine, OR an ice cream attachment for Kenwood Chef or Magimix or similar, OR a freezer and a lot of elbow grease.
A freezer, and a suitable storage container (we keep the containers from bought ice cream).
(at least) 6 limes
Probably a bottle of shop bought lime juice.
300g sugar
2 x 300ml water.
60g fresh basil (yes, you read that right. Yes, that's a lot of basil).

Method:

Make a simple syrup with your first 300ml of water and the 300g sugar - heat the water and dissolve the sugar in it.
Zest and juice your limes. Top up the lime juice to 300ml from the bottle, or juice extra fresh limes and then throw away the skins if you're feeling extravagant.
Add the lime zest to your simple syrup, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
Leave the zesty syrup to cool for a bit - it doesn't need to be completely cold, but no more than hand hot.
While it's cooling, bring your second 300ml of water to the boil, and once it's properly boiling, dunk the basil leaves into it for 10 seconds, then pour them into the sieve and run cold water over them. This blanching is not strictly NECESSARY for flavour, so you can leave this step out if you're feeling lazy, but it means you get a nicer colour in the finished sorbet. Once the basil leaves are properly cold, drop them into the blender and wash the sieve.
Put the zesty syrup and the 300ml of lime juice into the blender too, and then blend.
Pass the resulting glop through the washed sieve into your ice cream machine - you may need the wooden spoon to help things along here, but if you do, be gentle - and then follow the instructions on the machine OR pass it through the sieve into your freezer-safe container, and prepare to take it out and reblend it every couple of hours (at least 3 times or it'll go all crystally and manky). Ice cream machine really is a lot easier.

This works really well as a palate cleanser if the heatwave doesn't last. It's also nice in a G&T.

norfolkian

Mood: geeky

Ford Prefect said: ‘I bought some peanuts.’
Arthur Dent moved, and groaned again, muttering incoherently.
'Here, have some,’ urged Ford, shaking the packet again, ‘if you’ve never been through a matter transference beam before you’ve probably lost some salt and protein. The beer you had should have cushioned your system a bit.’

For this challenge (which I LOVE, by the way), I took inspiration from the bit quoted above from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I largely followed this recipe from Jack Monroe for Beery Berry Crumble, but I did 50g oats and 50g crushed salted peanuts in the crumble (I roughly crushed the peanuts using a pestle and mortar). The texture and slight saltiness of the peanuts worked really well with the beery fruit. :)

I used dark muscavado sugar in the fruit mixture and white caster sugar in the crumble (as that's what I had in), but in my experience with crumbles golden caster sugar works really well in crumbles too.

A crumble fit for eating after going through a matter transference beam. :)

el_staplador

Ingredients
for the cookies
125g butter
100g sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
225g plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking powder

for the filling
100g stoned dates
50g sugar
75ml water

Equipment
2 baking sheets
saucepan
hob
wooden spoon
sieve
table knife
sharp knife
wire rack

Method

Preheat the oven to 190degC. Grease the baking sheets.

Put the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter melts. Stir until smooth. Sift the flour, ginger and baking powder into the mixture and mix to form a dough.

Roll the dough into small balls and arrange on the baking sheets. Flatten slightly with a knife. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Cool on the wire rack.

While the cookies are cooling, chop the dates and place them in a pan with the sugar and water. Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and cook gently for about 15 minutes until the mixture reduces to a thick, jam-like paste. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Use to sandwich the cookies together in pairs.

These are actually a bit sweet to my taste, and I think I'd experiment with reducing the sugar in the cookie mixture in future. Maybe in the date mixture, too.

el_staplador

This is a really quick, easy, adaptable recipe for date and nut balls. I used this recipe, varied according to what happened to be in the cupboard. (There's a whole lot of Iftar recipes here if anyone else is looking for ideas.)

Ingredients
20 large dates (the ones sold in a block for baking are fine)
1/4 cup nuts (I used walnuts)
1 tbsp sultanas

Equipment
Sharp knife (not so vital if you have a blender)
Microwave (or you can use the hob, in which case you also need a pan)
Microwaveable plate
Microwaveable bowl (I used a pudding basin)
Spoon

1. If you don't have a blender, chop the dates fairly thoroughly. Chop the nuts too, separately.

2. Toast the nuts for a couple of minutes on a plate in the microwave. Keep an eye on them and shake them around half way through.

3. Put the chopped dates in the pudding basin and microwave for about 30 seconds - this is just enough to warm them through and make them sticky.

4. Add the toasted nuts and the sultanas, mix well, and, when it all comes together into a glorious sticky lump, roll it into little balls.

If you don't have a microwave, then you can toast the nuts and warm the dates in a pan on the stove. It looks like you can throw all sorts of things in to vary the nuts, and I can see myself making these a lot - take them hiking, for snacks at work, etc, etc.

el_staplador

This is a recipe from one of those fundraising cookbooks where the members of a particular community contribute recipes and the resulting collection is printed and sold - in this case, a choir adjacent to the choir that I used to sing in.

This is not, in fact, a pie, nor does it contain any beeswax or bee products. The name comes from the appearance of the icing. It's pleasant and dead easy.

Ingredients

for the shortcake
4oz butter
2oz caster sugar (we didn't have any, so I used granulated)
5oz plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 level teaspoon ground ginger

for the icing
4 level tablespoonfuls icing sugar
2oz butter
1 level teaspoon ground ginger
3 level teaspoons golden syrup

Equipment
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Weighing scales
Sieve
Teaspoon and tablespoon for measuring
Oven
Hob
Baking tray (I used a round sandwich tin, 7" or so across - a square shape would make it easier to cut into regular pieces)
Saucepan

Method

1. Beat the sugar into the butter. Sift in the flour, baking powder and ginger and mix well.
2. Press into a tin and bake in a moderate oven (190degC or so) for 30 minutes, until pale brown.
3. While the shortcake is cooling, melt the icing ingredients gently together in a saucepan. Pour over the shortcake. (It's less messy to do this while the cake is still in the tin, but it's then more messy to get it out of the tin. Take your pick)
4. Allow to cool.

( Picture under cut )

fred_mouse

This one is a bit different from my usual apple pudding, so I thought I'd record it. Quantities are quite approximate, because I got half way through before I started paying attention, and I'm not sure whether I was using 1/3 or 1/2 cup scoops.

Ingredients
Cooking apples (and/or eating ones that are going a bit wrinkly)
cinnamon (to taste)
salt (to taste)
1/2 - 1 cup cooking oil (grapeseed)
2 eggs
1.5 cups soy milk (I use a gf variety)
1 - 1.5 cups desiccated coconut
1 cup idli rava (rice semolina -- because regular semolina is wheat)
handful of sultanas (optional)

Equipment
Oven
casserole dish
apple peeling/cutting equipment (I've got one of those spiral peeling/chopping devices, and it makes this so much more doable)
medium mixing bowl
whisk/fork/spoon

Peel/chop apples, put in casserole dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and salt. Put cooking oil, eggs, soy milk, in mixing bowl, whisk together. Add dry ingredients, mix. If you are adding sultanas (I put them on half), spread them over the apple, and then spread the topping on. Bake at least half an hour at 180C, until the top is crunchy.

norfolkian

Mood: bouncy

I'm not much of a baker, but I do still have leftover mincemeat from Christmas, so when I saw the challenge this week was cake, I knew what to do.

My mincemeat is homemade: here is the recipe. I heartily recommend it.

The recipe for the cake I used is here. I didn't change too much because I'm not a very confident baker, but I did use some mixed dried fruit rather than 75g sultanas as the recipe suggests because the mixed fruit was actually cheaper. And I used caster sugar because that's what I had in the cupboard.

Here is the cake:

Mincemeat cake

It's yummy - I had a big slice after dinner with some whisky. :) I think it could have done with a little less time in the oven because it came out quite crunchy round the edges, but other than that it is fine.

el_staplador

('peer-nitch-ki' - Polish gingerbread hearts). This is one of the in-laws' family recipes, and, like many family recipes, it's somewhat idiosyncratic. I reproduce the recipe as we received it, complete with measurements in two different systems (three if you count teaspoons) and frankly terrifying instructions, under the cut, but here's what I think you should actually do:

Ingredients
1kg strong white flour
400g clear honey
225g butter, diced
225g granulated sugar
3 large eggs, gently beaten
2 heaped teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice

Equipment
Deep mixing bowl
Sturdy table knife
Bowl and kettle
Saucepan
Something to beat the eggs in
Teaspoon
Large pastry board (or use the work surface if that's what you usually do)
Rolling pin
Heart-shaped cutter
Baking sheets
Oven

Method

Preheat oven to 170degC.

Place the flour into a bowl and make a well. Stand the jar of honey in a bowl of hot water to warm the honey a little. This makes it easier to tip it into a pan and heat (carefully!) until it boils.

Pour the boiling honey into the flour and stir with the blade of a knife. When it's reasonably well mixed, add the butter and keep stirring. Then add the sugar, still stirring, followed by the eggs and the bicarb. Finally, add the spices and mix again.

It is at this point that I consider that you are safe to tip the whole lot out onto a board. There will be some residual heat, but at least you won't be frantically chasing dribbles of boiling honey across a flat surface. Draw it all together and knead for 10 minutes or so until smooth. Cut a piece off to see if little bubbles are beginning to form; if they aren't, knead for a little longer.

Roll out to about 1cm thickness (I have to do it slightly thinner due to the limitations of the cutter, but do it too thin and they don't rise properly) and cut out with a heart-shaped cutter. Place on a baking tray, leaving about 1cm between them, and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

They rise rather than spread, and should end up slightly convex.

What I actually did was scale the quantities down by 15% to allow for the fact that the jar of honey was 340g - all except the eggs. This of course made for a less stiff dough, which was considerably easier to knead, so I might continue to do that in future. Even with reduced quantities, I ended up with well over 50 of the things. Fortunately they keep very well.

Also I think I accidentally used caster sugar, which doesn't seem to have made a huge amount of difference.

( Boiling honey! )

ewt

In my house it isn't quite properly Christmas until someone has made shortbread. The recipe is one my mother got off the back of the Canada Corn Starch box, decades ago -- or maybe her mother did.

Equipment needed:
-bowl
-flour sifter or sieve
-I use a thing called a "pastry cutter" (which wikipedia calls a pastry blender, but I was definitely taught cutter because it's for cutting in), but you can mix this with a fork or mixer or something instead
-cookie cutters, or just cut up the dough with a knife (optional)
-rolling pin or wine bottle or something (optional)
-baking tray
-oven

( shortbread with four ingredients, count 'em, four )

miss_s_b

OK, it's not that goth to eat flapjacks in the first place, but this is darker than your average flapjack.

(In the method bit, I have actually noted all the places I would wash my hands when making this. Thorough hand washing is ingrained in me from having worked in a commercial kitchen; there are some people that think I go a bit over the top with this, so I wanted to know what you all think. Maybe you think I don't wash my hands enough! Do comment!)

( Recipe under the cut )

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Weekly Food Challenge

A challenge for cooks every Wednesday

Entries tagged with sweet things

Challenge 63: PIES! - Mince Pies

Something home-grown: apple and thyme crumble

Challenge #48: hot weather comfort food - Lime and Basil Sorbet

Challenge 44: Towel Day - 'Don't Panic' crumble

Challenge 43: baked - ginger and date sandwich cookies

Challenge 42: Iftar - dates ladoo

Challenge 41: ginger - Beeswax Pie

Challenge 40: Gluten free - apple pudding

Challenge 28: Cake - Mincemeat Cake

Anything but turkey: pierniczki

Shortbread -- Challenge #25: Anything But Turkey

Goth Flapjack

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